The shift to more cautious investing is seen as a fundamental change, not a short-term trend.

The SEC awarded more than $30 million to a whistle-blower in its largest payout from a program started in 2011 to encourage people to come forward with evidence of securities fraud.

Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to pay $5 million to settle U.S. regulatory claims that its brokerage unit failed to prevent an employee from trading on nonpublic information related to the 2010 acquisition of Burger King Holdings Inc.

Just 1 percent of Americans say the U.S. health care system is "excellent," according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.