General Electric's announcement that it will largely exit financial services helped lift US stocks in opening trade Friday as Apple began taking orders for its new watch.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17,969.04, up 10.31 points (0.06 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 3.29 (0.16 percent) to 2,094.47, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 6.01 (0.12 percent) to 4,980.58.

GE surged 6.9 percent after announcing it reached deals to sell $26.5 billion in real estate assets as part of a plan to pare off most GE Capital assets over the next 24 months.

The industrial conglomerate also announced a new $50 billion share buyback program.

Apple slipped 0.8 percent as the tech giant began taking orders for the Apple Watch. First deliveries will begin in nine countries on April 24.