The first major hurricane set to hit the mainland U.S. in two years hasn't even hit yet, but it's already moving the stocks of businesses that could be affected by it. That could create a short-term stock trading opportunity.

Isaias it set to bring flash flooding and winds up to 120 mph along the Gulf Coast when it makes landfall late Friday or early Saturday. As residents in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi prepare for rainfall of up to 15 inches and storm surges of up to seven feet, according to estimates from the National Hurricane Center, the risk of downed power lines and related outages is already affecting stocks in the sector.

Shares of Quanta Services, which builds and maintains power lines, were up 1.5% Friday, while MasTec, which builds and designs power equipment for utilities, fell 1.7%.

Quanta's move could be part of a historical pattern pointed out by Citi analysts on Friday. They found that engineering and construction stocks like Quanta and MasTec "outperform in the short-term when there are significant disruptive storms."

More specifically, they found the sector outperforms the S&P 500 by 1% in the five days before a big storm makes landfall, followed by a 2% outperformance during the 10-day period after large storms as the companies benefit from restoration work.

Quanta has tended to see the largest bump of around 4% in the days after a storm, but that impact could be muted this time around since storm work as a percentage of total sales is likely smaller as the company has expanded beyond its core electrical transmission and distribution business in recent years.