U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday, led by a rebound in energy and financial stocks after a steep selloff through the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 118.68 points, or 0.76 percent, at 15,778.86.

Financial stocks, led by banks, have sold off this week on mounting concerns about the impact of negative interest rates and a wave of defaults from the battered energy sector, amid strong indications of slowing global growth.

The S&P 500 financial sectors are down 17.7 percent this year, with a 6.1 percent decline in the past four days alone.

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs were leading the premarket gainers on the Dow, while the top five top percentage gainers on the S&P 500 were oil companies, led by Chesapeake's 6.7 percent increase.

Prices of Brent crude, which has been in a tailspin for more than a year, were up nearly 5 percent on Friday after the United Arab Emirates' energy minister said OPEC was willing to talk about cutting production.

"Oil continues to be the main driver of the markets. It's the fear factor of oil continuing to move lower and its impact on oil debt around the world," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.

Retail sales in the U.S. rose more-than-expected last month, official data showed on Friday.

In a report, the Census Bureau said that retail sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.2%, from 0.2% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from -0.1%.

Industrial production in the euro zone fell unexpectedly last month, official data showed on Friday.

In a report, Eurostat said that Euro zone industrial production fell to a seasonally adjusted -1.0%, from -0.5% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from -0.7%.