Wall Street didn't react well to the latest comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday morning. Within the first hour of trading, news that interest rates might move higher than previously expected made the major indexes slump. As of 10:30 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.46%) was down 0.6%, leading other benchmarks lower.

Yet even on a tough day, a couple of stocks were notable winners. Sea Limited (SE -0.69%) has struggled for a while, but a rebound in Asia looked to bolster its prospects going forward. Meanwhile, Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS -0.62%) celebrated a successful holiday season. Read on to get the details about how each stock posted solid gains.

Sea sees calm waters ahead

Shares of Sea Limited jumped 13% in morning trading on Tuesday. The Singapore-based e-commerce specialist surprised investors with solid quarterly results.

Sea's Q4 financial report included some good news for shareholders. Revenue was up 7% year over year to $3.5 billion. Even more promisingly, though, gross profit jumped almost 30% from year-ago levels, as measures to cut costs gained traction and were successful in bolstering Sea's financial results. That helped the e-commerce company post positive net income of $423 million, and adjusted pretax operating earnings showed a similar turnaround.

Sea's e-commerce division was particularly strong, with segment revenue rising 32% even including more than 10 percentage points of negative pressure from the strength of the U.S. dollar. The company's core marketplace business also performed well, with transaction-based fees and advertising revenue helping boost sales 54% in that part of the division. By contrast, the digital entertainment segment was weaker, with bookings falling substantially year over year and sales climbing just 6%. Quarterly active user counts declined by more than 80 million to 485.5 million.

Investors were also pleased to see the digital financial services business keep ramping up: Segment revenue nearly doubled and the unit posted an adjusted pretax operating profit for the period. Despite fears among some shareholders, Sea stands to see further gains if the economy in the Asia-Pacific region regains strength in the wake of the waning influence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The end of 2022 was good for Dick's Sporting Goods

Shares of Dick's Sporting Goods rose 10% early Tuesday. The sporting goods retailer reported fiscal fourth-quarter financial results for the period ending Jan. 28 that made investors pleased with how the holiday season treated the company.

The results at Dick's were solid. Revenue rose 7% year over year to $3.6 billion, with comparable-store sales climbing 5.3% from year-ago levels. The company wasn't able to avoid a 27% drop in adjusted net income to $258 million, but a sizable reduction in share count limited the downward pressure on per-share earnings to 20%, with the figure coming in at $2.93 per share. Dick's also reported gaining market share as it went through a multiyear strategic plan to transform its business.

Dick's expects make more progress in 2023. Growth in comparable-store sales is likely to remain subdued, with the retailer expecting gains of 0% to 2% after adjusting for a 53-week 2023 fiscal year. Earnings of $12.90 to $13.80 per share would be better than the just-ended year's $12.04 per share on an adjusted basis, although it wouldn't come close to matching the $15.70 per share from the previous year.

Retailers face plenty of headwinds, and Dick's hasn't solved all of its problems. However, shareholders are pleased to see progress on key issues, and they're optimistic that Dick's can keep moving forward successfully in the coming year and beyond.