In Thursday's WSJ Fund Track, John Spence takes a look at the effect that a weakening economy will have on the ETF world. He says to look out for more pressure to consolidate redundant products and more pressure on those that have failed to gather sufficient assets. In that vein, Spence mentions that FocusShares filed to liquidate four of its funds at the end of October. Other ETF providers that have liquidated funds this year include XShares and Claymore.

Spence also reports that the SEC short selling ban is set to expire Thursday, which sounds like good news for companies like Rydex and ProFunds that run ETFs that bet against the market. Even though the ETFs continued trading, they halted issuing new shares. ProFunds told Spence that it plans to again begin creating shares in its short funds on Thursday.  

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