• In the U.S., retailers led the early gains as investors bet on strong Black Friday sales. Amazon shares advanced 0.8%. Gap gained 0.8%. Shopify advanced 0.7%, and Walmart rose 0.4%.
• Banco Sabadell saw its shares plunge 13% after it called off merger talks with BBVA after failing to reach a deal on financial terms.

European stocks closed higher on Friday, amid thin trading volumes, as investors monitored vaccine news and fresh Chinese data.

The pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 index closed up 0.4% Friday with most sectors and major bourses finishing in the black. For the week, it saw a rise of 0.5%.

Wall Street reopened on Friday for a half session following the Thanksgiving holiday, with the main three indexes seeing gains. Trading volumes were low, but the U.S. open boosted sentiment over in Europe after stocks were flat for most of the morning.

In the U.S., retailers led the early gains as investors bet on strong Black Friday sales. Amazon shares advanced 0.8%. Gap gained 0.8%. Shopify advanced 0.7%, and Walmart rose 0.4%.

Stocks in Asia-Pacific finished little changed on Friday as investors reacted to data. China's industrial profits surged 28.2% year-on-year in October, the country's National Bureau of Statistics announced Friday.

Back in Europe, shares of AstraZeneca rose 0.2% on Friday amid questions over the way AstraZeneca and Oxford University tested their coronavirus vaccine. The head of the White House's vaccine task force has voiced doubts about trial data and the drug's efficacy rate, and the company has confirmed that a new trial will likely take place.

Banco Sabadell saw its shares plunge 13% after it called off merger talks with BBVA after failing to reach a deal on financial terms.

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-CNBC's Fred Imbert and Eustance Huang contributed to this market report.