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West will take the top job at Del Monte Foods Inc, the maker of Meow Mix cat food and Del Monte canned vegetables that was taken private by a group led by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co earlier this year, Del Monte confirmed on Wednesday.

West, 48, was hastily named CEO at Hershey in October 2007 after Richard Lenny unexpectedly said he was leaving, reportedly because had disagreements with the Hershey Trust, the charitable trust that owns a controlling stake in the company.

West also could have wanted to get away from the control that the trust has over Hershey, said Morningstar analyst Erin Lash.

"He probably will have more freedom or flexibility to steer the strategic direction of the firm (Del Monte), more so than he did at Hershey," she said.

West's appointment is affective August 15, Del Monte said in a statement.

West has been credited with cutting costs and spurring new product development that has improved profits at Hershey.

Hershey shares were down more than 3 percent at $55.16 on Wednesday. They are up more than 17 percent since January, 2010 when the company failed to counter Kraft Foods Inc's successful effort to buy rival Cadbury Plc.

Published reports at the time painted a rift between West and the Hershey Trust over whether to bid for Cadbury, which would have left Hershey with a lot of debt.

West could not be reached for comment.

John Bilbrey, Hershey's chief operating officer, has been named interim president and chief executive, the company said. Bilbrey has been with Hershey since 2003.

Hershey Chairman James Nevels said the board will work quickly to name a permanent CEO.

(Reporting by Brad Dorfman, editing by Dave Zimmerman and Robert MacMillan)

Shoppers visited the discount chain for food and other basics, but spent cautiously. Sales of discretionary goods like apparel have been under pressure as shoppers digest higher costs for food, gasoline and other essentials.

Shares of Target retreated from premarket gains and were down 3 cents to $50.75 with about an hour to go before the market opens.

Target has been adding fresh groceries to more of its stores and signing up more shoppers for its credit cards. But groceries carry lower margins than other parts of the store and the credit cards' 5 percent discount further reduces margins.

Still, those initiatives have led to more visits and sales, even as shoppers "remain cautious in their spending," said Chief Executive Officer Gregg Steinhafel.

Target earned $689 million, or 99 cents per share, in the first quarter ended on April 30, up from $671 million, or 90 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts, on average, expected it to earn 94 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 2.8 percent to $15.58 billion, with sales at stores open at least a year up 2 percent, the company said earlier this month. Total revenue, including credit card revenue, rose 2.2 percent to $15.94 billion.

More shoppers are using the company's credit and debit cards, with 7.6 percent of sales in stores paid for with the cards in the quarter, up from 4.9 percent a year earlier.

Profit in the credit card business jumped nearly 75 percent to $194 million. Consumers' improving finances helped Target slash its bad debt expense to $12 million from $197 million a year earlier.

Credit card average receivables decreased 14.4 percent to $6.5 billion, and those directly funded by Target rose 6 percent to $2.5 billion. Target said in January that it wants to sell its credit card receivables.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl; Editing by Derek Caney, Dave Zimmerman)

Disappointing corporate results hit the S&P .SPX and the Dow .DJI on Tuesday, with both indexes dipping below their 50-day moving averages, but the weakness prompted some bargain hunting which helped shares recoup some losses in late trade.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will release minutes of its April 26-27 meeting at 2 p.m. EDT. Investors will look for further hints on the Federal Reserve's QE2 exit strategy, which is widely expected to take place in June, and will scrutinize any splits in opinion within the committee.

* Some caution over the outlook for economic growth in the United States was expected to linger after the latest batch of economic data which included weak factory output and housing starts figures.

* Further corporate earnings are expected to dictate short-term direction, with farm machinery maker Deere & Co (DE.N), retailer Target (TGT.N) and clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF.N) among firms set to report quarterly earnings.

* In company news, Dell's (DELL.O) shares rose 5 percent in after-hours trading after the PC maker's profits exceeded expectations and it raised its fiscal 2012 outlook for operating income.

* Analysts expect an initial public offering by social networking firm LinkedIn, which is set to be priced on Wednesday, to be a stunning success but said it carries a number of risks that may shake up investors in the future.

* Delphi Automotive has chosen JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to lead an initial public offering that could value the auto parts maker at more than $10 billion, sources said.

* Intel's (INTC.O) chief executive rejected speculation the world's largest chipmaker might adopt rival ARM Holdings' (ARM.L) technology to build mobile chips and said smartphones using its silicon are about a year away.

* Global sales growth of prescription drugs could be cut in half over the next five years as lucrative brands lose patent protection and cheaper generics and emerging markets become the only significant growth drivers, according to IMS Health.

* In Europe, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares rose in early trade as investors bought beaten-down miners and oil majors as commodity prices rebounded on the back of a broadly weaker dollar.

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Japan's benchmark Nikkei average .N225 was up 1.1 percent and MSCI's index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 percent. Korea stocks .KS11 rose 1.59 percent, lifted by automakers and shipbuilders.

European shares were expected to rise Wednesday, taking Asia's lead and bouncing from four-week lows. Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Germany's DAX .GDAXI and France's CAC 40 .FCHI were seen putting on between 0.7 and 0.9 percent, according to financial spreadbetters.

The main Wall Street .N indices ended flat to 0.6 percent lower Tuesday after falling as much as 1 percent, weighed by soft economic data, including a slump in home building, and a lower outlook from tech heavyweight Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ.N).

U.S. factory output slipped for the first time in 10 months in April as a shortage of parts from Japan crimped activity and home building slumped, showing the economy got off to a weak start in the second quarter.

Signs of lackluster economic activity were also evident in declining sales at Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N), and the cut in 2011 profit forecast by Hewlett-Packard.

"As long as investors remain jittery about U.S. economic growth, investment in Japanese manufacturers may be subdued," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.

London copper firmed Wednesday, but analysts said gains may be capped as disappointing U.S. data raised more doubts about the global economic recovery.

But amid the U.S. slowdown, the state of the housing market, a big copper user, comes as no surprise, especially after tornadoes lashed parts of the country last month. Home construction only accounts for about 2.2 percent of U.S. GDP.

"On a day-to-day basis, it is almost impossible to predict market movements," said Khiem Do, chairman of the Asia multi-asset team at Barings Asset Management in Hong Kong.

"The U.S. is going through a period of consolidation, but it's still growing. It's not going back to recession, it's just a deceleration. There's nothing too big to worry about."

The euro was steady against the dollar at $1.4274 after recovering from recent lows, but wariness over sovereign debt problems in Europe made investors nervous about piling up euro positions, although traders said signs of clarity in the issue may prompt some buying back of the single currency.

"I feel that the euro-zone debt issue has stabilized slightly for the near term after European finance ministers approved a loan scheme for Portugal, prompting buying back of the euro," said Teppei Ino, a currency analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Europe's top financial officials broke a taboo Tuesday and acknowledged for the first time that Greece may have to restructure its debts, a move which could stoke Europe's sovereign debt crisis.

The U.S. dollar index .DXY, a measure of the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, was off 0.31 percent.

GOLD, CRUDE EDGE UP

Gold rose to $1,492.26, after falling for three consecutive sessions. Again, worries about the euro-zone's debt crisis lent support, despite news this week that billionaire financier George Soros dumped almost his entire $800 million stake in bullion investment in the first quarter.

U.S. crude futures bounced back after ending at a 12-week low following industry data that showed a surprise drop in U.S. product inventories.

London Brent crude for July delivery was up 54 cents at $110.53 a barrel, after settling down 85 cents.

NYMEX crude for June delivery was up 79 cents at $97.70 a barrel, after rising to as high as $98.00 earlier.

(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa and Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Matt Driskill)

The twin leaders of the global PC industry -- under siege from the growing popularity of powerful mobile gadgets like Apple Inc's iPad -- are increasingly venturing into higher-margin services: helping corporations set up networks, servers and storage to engage the cloud.

HP CEO Leo Apotheker vowed to invest heavily on hiring and expanding its services division -- everything from computer maintenance to consulting -- to recover from "missed opportunities" under predecessor Mark Hurd.

But investors sent the stock tumbling more than 7 percent, fearful that costs -- tightly controlled under Hurd -- would balloon and shave points off already-pressured margins.

Dell, on the other hand, showed good progress on advancing margins to a better-than-anticipated 23 percent precisely by moving into higher-margin enterprise solutions and services. Its stock climbed 5 percent.

Dell has been in turnaround mode for more than a year and its efforts are now visible in the results.

"Dell was a company that was struggling and it's paid its dues in terms of investing," Shaw Wu, analyst with Sterne Agee said. "Now you're seeing the fruits of that labor."

"HP underspent, in services in particular, and they're suffering for it," he added.

HP trimmed its sales forecast for the second straight quarter. Dell, on the other hand, raised its operating income outlook for the year on improved profitability.

The latest revision to HP's outlook, the second since Apotheker took over seven months ago, raised questions about the former SAP CEO's ability to spark growth at the technology behemoth.

Several Wall Street investment houses, including Credit Suisse and Barclays, responded to the results by lowering their recommendations or price targets on the stock.

HP and Dell's results underscored the weakness in the global PC market, which is under siege from the growing popularity of mobile devices such as Apple Inc's iPad.

CONSUMER PC SALES FALL

HP's sales of PCs and other devices slid 5 percent in the second quarter. Consumer PC sales in particular dived 20 percent -- greater than the company anticipated.

At Dell, demand for consumer PCs during the quarter fell short of its expectations, hurt partly by tablets, Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said in an interview.

The sluggish industrywide consumer PC market plus the lingering supply impact of Japan's earthquake are expected to hurt HP more than Dell profits for the rest of the year.

Dell is less reliant on consumer PC sales and more focused on sales to corporations, which are replacing aging IT gear.

Apotheker, in turn, wants to boost earnings by pushing into sectors such as cloud computing, which for HP involves helping companies to revamp their data centers. Investors are looking for signs of progress on that strategy and the efforts to revamp its services unit.

"Clearly management credibility has taken a hit given that it just introduced its long-term outlook two months ago, with very little concern expressed for the long-term outlook on services," Brian Alexander, analyst with Raymond James Equity Research said in a note on HP.

"We do not have a high degree of confidence or visibility that the execution of these changes will be crisp," he said.

Apotheker indirectly blamed the services unit's problems on Hurd, who left the company in August after the company accused him of filing inaccurate expense reports.

HP acquired the division when it bought Electronic Data Systems in 2008 -- a major initiative spearheaded by Hurd -- adding services ranging from help-desk support for PCs to advising corporations on rebuilding data centers to take advantage of new cloud computing technologies.

Cloud computing refers to the use of Web-based servers to deliver services to large businesses and organizations.

HP may offset the spending on the services unit by keeping a tight control on costs elsewhere.

"We will manage our costs very prudently ..., including our salary costs," Apotheker said. "We want to create enough resources to expand our business."

The company is not planning any job cuts but will watch its headcount, he added.

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba, and Angela Moon; Editing by Edwin Chan, Derek Caney, Richard Chang, Phil Berlowitz)