Major indices are selling off today as a new Covid-19 variant emerged in South Africa. As we enter a positive seasonal period for the market, is the new variant a cause for concern or will the volatility create a buying opportunity?

Nearly two years into the pandemic, numerous variants have been discovered and thoroughly researched. While each new variant announcement has typically created some short-term pain for stocks, overall the market has shown us not to worry.

In the graph below of the S&P 500, we can see the general timing of the four current Variants of Interest (designated by the World Health Organization) as well as the most recent strain (expected to be named with the Greek letter Nu):

The WHO has called an emergency meeting Friday to determine if they will declare this new strain a Variant of Concern. As news of the new strain has spread, money markets are now pricing in a delay for the first rate hike to September 2022 rather than July.

With the notion that future rate hikes may be delayed, financial stocks are taking a hit as their outlook for increased profits comes under scrutiny. Yet with recent growth estimates for Q4 recently surging as high as 8%, the volatility may create a buying opportunity for investors.

If this new variant turns out to be less worrisome, the Fed may raise rates earlier than anticipated. And if that’s the case, financial stocks should continue to do well. Let’s take a look at three financials that have been outperforming this year and are poised to continue their run into 2022.

Evercore Inc. (EVR - Free Report)

Evercore is headquartered in New York and operates as an investment banking company. EVR provides advisory services to multinational companies in several areas including mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and other corporate transactions. EVR is part of the Financial – Investment Bank industry group, which is ranked in the top 23% of all 253 industries.

EVR, currently a Zacks #1 Strong Buy, has shown a robust history of earnings surprises as you can see below. Over the last four quarters, Evercore has posted an average surprise of over 51%. The company most recently reported quarterly earnings in late October with EPS of $3.96, representing a 19.3% surprise over consensus.

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From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

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This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.

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