Washington Mutual (WM) hit a 12-year low Friday as the meltdown of the mortgage sector accelerates. Shares in the Seattle-based lender plunged 15% to $10 apiece after The Wall Street Journal reported that WaMu, under pressure from regulators, has approached private equity and sovereign wealth investors for possible capital infusions.

Firms like WaMu need capital now because falling home prices and swooning mortgage securities markets are reducing the value of their loan portfolios and raising the risk of credit losses. Those fears have been amplified by the near collapse this week of two big mortgage firms, jumbo lender Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) and mortgage investor Carlyle Capital, which threatens to flood an already sopping mortgage-securities market with more unwanted supply. That - along with the fear of dilutive stock sales in the name of capital-raising - is why Friday brought more steep declines in lenders like WaMu, Countrywide (CFC) and Freddie Mac (FRE). One surprising bright spot was Fannie Mae (FNM), a big loser in Thursday’s selloff that has been spared today, rising 2%.

Apple (AAPL) sold off after the tech titan offered a weaker-than-expected second-quarter forecast. Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations for its just completed fiscal first quarter, with earnings rising to $1.58 billion, or $1.76 a share, from the year-ago $1 billion, or $1.14 a share. Analysts were looking for a first-quarter profit of $1.62 a share. “We’re thrilled to report our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said CEO Steve Jobs. “We have an incredibly strong new product pipeline for 2008, starting with MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iTunes Movie Rentals in the first two weeks.”

But the story was less clear cut for the rest of the year. Apple expects to make 94 cents a share for the second quarter on revenue of $6.8 billion. Wall Street was looking for a profit of $1.09 a share on revenue of around $7 billion. The stock tumbled nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading. Even so, given Apple’s recent pullback - at postclose levels, shares are down 30 percent from their recent peak - and the company’s history of posting huge profit growth, it seems like the stock might be due for a bounce when it opens Wednesday.

U.S. stocks could swoon when the market reopens this morning after the three-day holiday weekend. Futures prices point to a 5 percent decline in the S&P 500, Bloomberg reports. The slide would be the biggest since the tech bubble popped in the spring of 2000 and would come on the heels of sharp selloffs overseas Monday.

The stock plunge is putting pressure on commodity prices: Oil dropped more than $3 a barrel to a six-week low just above $87, and the prices of corn, soybeans and wheat dropped by their daily limit. Lehman Brothers says the U.S. economy is just one shock away from a recession, and economics blogger Michael Shedlock believes the commodity boom is over. But commodities trader Alan Kluis tells Bloomberg television that the commodity selloff is “just about the flow of money” and will make for a buying opportunity in coming weeks.