Canada's main stock index ended barely higher in subdued trade on Friday as small gains for some big banks and a boost for gold miners from higher bullion prices were offset by declines in pipeline companies and railway stocks.

"Coming into month-end people tend to not do much and they do even less in front of a long weekend," said Rick Hutcheon, chief operating officer at RKH Investments, referring to U.S. markets being closed on Monday for Memorial Day.

"We're through earnings season, OPEC has done its thing, Trump hasn't done anything silly this week, the economy is not doing anything," he said.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended up 6.20 points, or 0.04 per cent, at 15,416.93. It lost 0.3 per cent in a holiday-shortened week.

Decliners slightly outnumbered advancers, with overall trade volume at its lowest in months.

Bombardier Inc gained 3.2 per cent to $2.25 after the planemaker said it had delivered its first CS300 aircraft to customer Swiss International Air Lines AG.

Gold miners were among the strongest gainers, as political uncertainty led investors to shun riskier assets in favor of the precious metal, pushing it to its highest in nearly four weeks.

Agnico Eagle Mining gained 1.7 per cent to $66.13 and Goldcorp was up 1.2 per cent at $18.47.

The materials group, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, added 0.5 per cent.

Pipeline companies ranked among the heaviest weights, with Enbridge Inc off 0.9 per cent at $52.48 and TransCanada Corp down 0.8 per cent at $63.28.

Canadian National Railway Co fell 0.7 per cent to $103.70 and rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd lost 0.5 per cent to $213.74.

Several of the country's biggest banks gained following their earnings reports earlier in the week, with Toronto-Dominion Bank up 0.4 per cent at $64.25. 

U.S. MARKETS

U.S. stocks ended little changed on Friday ahead of the long holiday weekend, though indexes ended a two-week streak of losses and consumer shares were strong for a second day.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also eked out record closing highs, and the S&P 500 posted a seventh straight session of gains, matching a winning streak from February.

Helping the consumer staples index, Costco Wholesale rose 1.8 per cent to US$177.86 and was among the biggest drivers of the S&P and Nasdaq indexes. The warehouse club operator reported results Thursday.

Trading volume, with just about 5.2 billion shares changing hands on U.S. exchanges, was the lowest of the year. The U.S. market will be closed on Monday for Memorial Day.

"The market is almost eerily quiet. The only thing that tends to move the markets — at least recently — is political news," said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of Exencial Wealth Advisors, in Oklahoma City.

"For the most part, investors have come to a consensus that there's not going to be recession in the U.S. in 2017, and Europe is strong enough where they're not going to have a recession this year. So the big fear of a recession has been taken off the table."

Earlier in the day, a report showed that the U.S. economy grew at a 1.2-per-cent pace in the first quarter, slightly more than the 0.7 per cent estimated earlier. The higher reading was in line with economists' expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 2.67 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 21,080.28, the S&P 500 gained 0.75 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 2,415.82 and the Nasdaq Composite added 4.94 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 6,210.19.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.3 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.4 per cent and the Nasdaq added 2.1 per cent.

The consumer staples index and the consumer discretionary index were both up 0.3 per cent. The gains were mostly offset by declines in health care and real estate stocks.

Ulta Beauty jumped 3.2 per cent, the second-biggest percentage gainer in the S&P, after the company raised its full-year forecast.

Deckers Outdoor Corp ended up 18.8 per cent and hit a nine-month high during the session after reporting a surprise quarterly profit.

Among the laggards, GameStop fell 5.9 per cent to US$22.22. The videogame retailer left its full-year earnings forecast unchanged despite beating profit estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.14-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.12-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 57 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 97 new highs and 61 new lows.