is exactly the type of thing that shows up in a few of those books.

For those that aren't aware, the Mitch Rapp series is about a CIA counterterrorism operative. Lots of good detail about CIA and the intelligence apparatus in the US as well as foreign entities. In at least a couple of the books I've read, the CIA has picked up on unusual economic activity in the markets and read it as a possible indicator of impending terrorist attacks. Usually it's dovetailed with other evidence/intelligence but it's certainly a thing that intelligence analysts look at.

The movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit also had this discovery of unusual economic activity as one of the main plot points of the movie, where the Russians were trying to destabilize and sink the dollar thru an impending terrorist attack. Ryan, of course, was able to recognize the signs in the activity of a large Russian company that was basically starting to bet against the dollar in the lead up to the attempted attack.